An LCA is a systematic mapping and assessment of environmental and resource impacts across the entire life cycle of a product or product system – from the extraction of raw materials from nature until the product is disposed of and ends up as waste or as resources for new products (from "cradle to grave" or "cradle to cradle").
It is not only the material of the product or product system itself that is examined, but also all materials and energy sources used in production, transport, and maintenance. Through the life cycle assessment of a product, one gains insight into which environmental issues are most significant and where in the life cycle they arise.
What can LCA be used for?
The results are used for product development, environmentally friendly procurement, or policy design—for example, when choosing between alternative products or waste management systems. LCA is linked to development and documentation adapted to a low-emission society and a circular economy. Some refer to LCA as life cycle analysis rather than life cycle assessment, but these are simply different names for the same method.
Life Cycle Assessments and EPDs
Results from an LCA can be expressed through an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which presents a product’s environmental characteristics in a standardised way. EPD is especially demanded in the construction sector, as a requirement in purchasing processes, but is increasingly demanded also in other sectors. You can read more about EPD on this page.
LCA methods that include social and economic aspects
Besides the more traditional environmental LCAs, methods have been developed to also include social and economic aspects in LCA. These are called S-LCA (Social Life Cycle Assessment) and LCC (Life Cycle Costing). When combined, this integrated LCA approach is called Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). LCSA includes all the three dimensions of sustainability in one assessment approach.
LCAs four steps
LCA has four steps that normally all are included in LCA projects: goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. See more about these steps here: https://norsus.no/de-ulike-trinnene-i-lca-og-hvordan-norsus-jobber-med-disse/.
Life Cycle Management
LCAs are essential for development of sustainable products and services, and an important part of the knowledge base for industrial and societal development where there are requirements for environmental and resource use improvement.
Life Cycle Management is conducted when LCA and life cycle thinking is used in the strategy and R&D development processes of enterprises.
Video: Life Cycle Assessments explained in 3 minutes
Podcast about LCA
Listen to our senior researcher Hanne Lerche Raadal explaining the principles of LCA in the podcast Energi og Klima (in Norwegian).
In the podcast (Norwegian) you can learn more about:
- how LCA is used to document environmental footprint
- why this is important
- how companies can request environmental documentation
- whether emission quotas influence life cycle assessments
- how you can use Guarantee of Origin (GoO) in environmental documentation